Chopper with relief material makes emergency landing

Uttarkashi: A pilot of a private helicopter carrying relief material to flood-affected areas in Uttarakhand escaped with minor injuries after making an emergency landing on Friday.

The chopper, however, was damaged after it landed near the Tikochi river in Uttarkashi district.

According to Uttarakhand Police, the helicopter belonging to a private company had been hired by the state government for distributing relief material in the Mori-Arakot area.

"The pilot Sushant Kumar Jena sustained a minor bruise while the co-pilot Ajit Singh was totally unharmed. After medical attention, they have proceeded to Dehradun by a flight. They had taken off from Arakot," Uttarkashi superintendent of police Pankaj Bhatt told IANS.

According to the police, the pilots resorted to an emergency landing after the aircraft developed a technical snag mid-air.

The Uttarakhand state government is carrying out relief and rescue operations in the area after a cloudburst followed by heavy rainfall earlier this week.

On August 20, three persons had been killed in a helicopter crash in the Mori area of Uttarkashi. The pilot, co-pilot and a civilian, who were all on board the private aircraft carrying relief material provided by the state government, had been killed in the crash.